HTC is hoping that its big bet on premium design for its new HTC One M8 flagship Android smartphone will help it take on rivals Samsung and Apple.

One M8 develops the company's focus on premium metal materials and rigid construction, and is a replacement for the well received GSMA Global Mobile award-winning HTC One from 2013.

"It has taken us 13 years to get the point where we can create an all-metal phone. Metal is great for designers but for phone engineers that need to worry about the function of the phone it is a nightmare," said Graham Wheeler, HTC's director of product for Europe, Middle East and Africa. "At HTC the designers come first, however, and the engineers have to fit around the designers."

HTC has made the entire body of the new One M8 out of a curved metal case that bends around the edges to the glass front of the screen – a design that has not been possible before because the metal case blocks radio signals used to send and receive data, phone calls and text messages.

HTC has focused on design and build for the One M8 with an all-metal body.

HTC devised a way of embedding the antennas directly into the metal body using a plastic resin before the curved shell is formed from a solid block.

The new Android smartphone is thinner than its predecessor, but has a new, larger 5in full HD screen. HTC has replaced the fixed capacitive buttons at the bottom of the screen for the more familiar Android on-screen back, home and app switcher virtual buttons.

The One M8 includes the latest flagship Snapdragon 801 2.3GHz quad-core processor from Qualcomm, like the Sony Xperia Z2 and Samsung Galaxy S5, and has a microSD card slot for expanding the 16GB of storage space with up to 128GB.

Two cameras for the price of one

The company decided to opt out of the megapixel race for ever higher and higher numbers of pixels for the original HTC One, instead fitting it with a 4.1 "ultrapixel" camera. The sensor that had physically bigger pixels for capturing more light per pixel, therefore making a brighter and more colour-rich image, especially in low-light conditions.

HTC has further developed the Ultrapixel idea by coupling the same 4.1 megapixel camera to two image processing chips for faster and crisper image capture, while adding a secondary camera that captures depth information at the same time as the main camera snaps a photo.

The "duo camera" design captures spatial information and allows several post-capture image processing functions. These include the ability to refocus a photo to any point in the image – not limited to certain plains within the image like Samsung's multi-capture efforts on the Galaxy S5 – much like a Lytro lightfield camera.

The Duo Camera allows users to refocus images after capture using the depth sensor information.

The One M8 can also isolate objects or people from a background, adjust the angle of the photo after the fact and create 3D-like images. The depth sensor will also automatically moderate the power of the dual-colour LED flash so that images do not appear completely washed out in the foreground.

One consequence of having the Duo Camera system is that HTC was forced to remove the optical image stabilisation from the One M8's camera, as the depth sensor can only work if the main camera is fixed.

HTC has added electronic image stabilisation, which imperceptibly captures five images in quick succession after pressing the shutter button and automatically chooses the best one.

A 5 megapixel front-facing camera on the M8 with an 80 degree viewing angle "can make anyone look beautiful in seconds" with the use of HTC's "selfie" mode and the image editing features, according to Wheeler.

Gestures and co-processors

The One M8 has a new co-processor that handles data from a variety of low-power sensors like the ambient light sensor, accelerometer, GPS and touchscreen without waking the main, power-hungry processor.

The co-processor allows the M8 to be aware of its surroundings without draining the battery, making a range of "Motion Launch" gestures possible like a double tap on the screen to wake the device. The M8 knows when it is in a pocket or bag and prevents the screen from waking the rest of the phone.

Another one of the useful gestures is “sightseeing mode,” where the M8 will launch the camera app if the phone is held horizontally and the volume button is held down, even when the screen is off or locked.

Besides gestures, the motion co-processor allows the M8 to function like a pedometer or fitness tracker, with a Fitbit app pre-installed for measuring steps and distance walked.

Bigger battery

Short battery life has become one of the key issues plaguing modern, powerful smartphones. HTC has added a larger 2,600 mAh battery to the M8 while making the smartphone up to 40% more power efficient than its predecessor.

HTC's “ultra power saving” mode will also extend battery life by turning off unnecessary power hungry functions like mobile data, providing 36 hours of standby time from just 20% battery.

The re-engineered "Boom Sound" front-facing speakers, which bracket the screen for stereo sound, are 25% louder than those on last year's One and some of the loudest and clearest available on any smartphone.

Following Google's lead, HTC also decided to decouple its apps and software from the Android operating system, allowing them to be updated via Google Play like any other app rather than having to rely on full Android software updates.

HTC has given its social media and news aggregation app, BlinkFeed, a visual makeover.

As a consequence HTC’s apps, including BlinkFeed, the Zoe camera application and the Sense customisations that HTC makes to the standard Android experience, can be individually updated and improved much faster. They can also be made them available to older HTC devices and other smartphone users.

“By decoupling our apps like Zoe from Android and offering them through Google Play we can enable people not using HTC smartphones to download and use our apps,” explained Wheeler. “It also means that major Android updates, something we’re pledging to make available for our flagship smartphones for two years, can be delivered faster.”

HTC’s BlinkFeed and Zoe apps are expected to be available for select older HTC handsets as well as Android smartphones from other manufactures through Google Play later on this year.

All-out design

HTC has bet everything on the design and build of the One M8 to differentiate it again strong competition from Samsung, Sony and Apple, but that design focus has had consequences on additional features.

The M8 has no fingerprint sensor, which is likely to become a mainstay for top smartphones in 2014, no heart rate sensor like Samsung's Galaxy S5 and no wireless charging support.

"We couldn't do certain things, like wireless charging, because it would compromise the design of the M8, something we were not prepared to do," explained Wheeler.

HTC's hoping the M8 will be enough to stymie falling sales as it struggles to recover from a lossmaking year in 2013, where its Android smartphone business dwindled in the face of aggressive pricing and promotion by Korean rivals Samsung and LG and Japan's Sony.

The company has forecast a loss this quarter on revenues and it said would be smaller than at any time since it switched from manufacturing devices for others to manufacturing smartphones under the HTC brand in 2009.

The HTC One M8 will be available from today on contract from EE, Three, Vodafone and O2, as well as from high street stores Phones 4U and Carphone Warehouse for around £550 without a contract.